d match him against a
scorpion. This was the tarantula, a great hairy spider with a leg-spread
covering the palm of the hand, another of the unpleasant inhabitants of El
Chauth. Against this creature, however, it was always a shade of odds that
the scorpion would win, though there was a surprise occasionally. Talking
of odds reminds me that nearly always at these fights some sportsman would
open a little book and announce that he was prepared to lay "evens on the
field." Nor was it unprofitable, for the British as a race, and
particularly the British soldier, will bet on anything. One man, a sapper,
made quite a good thing out of backing a scorpion which he carried about
with him in a tobacco-tin. It was a great scrapper, and as it was a very
undersized creature, he usually managed to obtain good odds from men who
were backing larger and more powerfully developed specimens. What this
sapper fed his gladiator on was a mystery; but it won many fights.

With the exception of almost daily visits from Turkish aircraft, whose aim
did not improve, and a few false alarms, the days passed in uneventful
monotony. Towards the end of May, however, a big raid was organised on one
of the Turkish lines of communication. If you look at the map you will see,
south-south-east of Beersheba, a spot called El Auja, and south of that
another one called Maan. This latter is on the main line of the Hedjaz
railway from Medina to Damascus and beyond, to which the Turks had clung
with limpet-like tenacity in spite of their retreat in the west.

Presumably their chief reason for holding on so long was to impress the
Mahommedan followers of the Cherif of Mecca. This dignitary had come in on
our side on account of the revolting cruelties practised by the Turks on
the inhabitants of Mecca, Medina, and other parts of his kingdom. There
seems little reason to doubt that these atrocities were committed at the
direct instigation of that arch-villain Enver Pasha himself. Such treatment
from those who were supposed to be protectors of his religion stung the
Cherif of Mecca to open revolt.

About the middle of 1916, he turned the Turks out of Mecca, killing or
capturing the entire garrison, and proclaimed the independence of the
Hedjaz; in which courageous action he had the support of the British
Government. As his army was mainly composed of undisciplined Arabs he
confined himself thereafter to guerilla warfare and made constant attacks
on the Turkish lin